- For Contributing to Invention and Development of Optical
Coherence Tomography -
TOKYO, Sept. 30,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Honda Foundation is a public
interest incorporated foundation established by Soichiro Honda and his younger brother Benjiro,
and is currently led by President Hiroto
Ishida. The foundation established the Honda Prize in 1980
as Japan's first international
award that acknowledges achievements contributing to "the creation
of a truly humane civilization."
In 2024, the 45th Honda Prize will be awarded to Dr.
James G. Fujimoto, Elihu Thomson
Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Research Laboratory of
Electronics, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT), the
U.S.A., for his research group's
development of optical coherence tomography (OCT). The prize also
acknowledges his contribution to the commercialization and clinical
translation of OCT in ophthalmology, cardiology, and biomedical
research.
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OCT is a new imaging modality which is analogous to ultrasound,
except that it measures the echo time delay and magnitude of
backscattered light instead of sound. OCT enables real-time,
microscopic resolution imaging of a subsurface structure in
biological tissues and materials. It has applications in multiple
medical specialties as well as fundamental research and
manufacturing. OCT can be combined with fiber optic catheters,
endoscopes, and laparoscopes to enable imaging inside the body. It
enables "optical biopsy," imaging pathology in real time, without
the need to remove specimens as in conventional excisional
biopsy.
The development of OCT is an example of the power of
multidisciplinary collaborative research teams which span
fundamental research, engineering, clinical medicine, and industry.
In the late 1980s, such a multidisciplinary project was relatively
uncommon, and Dr. Fujimoto's team demonstrated a pioneering
approach to joint medical-engineering research.
Dr. Fujimoto's team first aimed to apply OCT in ophthalmology.
OCT was invented by David Huang, an
MD, PhD student in Fujimoto's research group, working in close
collaboration with Eric Swanson, an
expert on satellite optical communication, and Drs. Carmen Puliafito and Joel Schuman, retina and glaucoma specialists.
OCT has become a standard of care in ophthalmology with 20 to 30
million procedures performed worldwide every year. It facilitates
early detection of diseases such as age-related macular
degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma, enabling patients
to be treated before irreversible loss of vision occurs.
Intravascular OCT was pioneered by visiting scientist
Mark Brezinski, an MD, PhD
cardiologist. Startup companies led by Swanson combined with
industry investment played a key role in commercializing OCT in
ophthalmology as well as cardiology. Today there is an
international research community with over 100 academic research
groups and companies developing OCT technology and clinical
applications.
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OCT can be used to guide disease treatment, improving outcomes
and saving health care costs. In the future, OCT of the eye may be
used in optometrists' shops, drug stores, and primary care doctors'
offices to screen for diabetes, neurological and other systemic
diseases. In the field of cardiology, intravascular OCT is emerging
as a valuable technique for guiding treatment of myocardial
infarction. Clinical studies have shown intravascular OCT treatment
guidance can reduce rates of major adverse cardiac events.
Over the years, the Honda Foundation has been promoting
"ecotechnology*" as its mission. Dr. Fujimoto, who led the OCT
research team, is the only researcher who consistently contributed
to the development and the dissemination of OCT is fully in accord
with the mission and worthy of the highest recognition. Therefore,
the 45th Honda Prize will be awarded to Dr. Fujimoto.
An award ceremony will be held at the Imperial Hotel in
Tokyo, Japan, on November 18, 2024. In addition to a prize medal
and a diploma, the laureate will be awarded 10 million yen.
*Ecotechnology: Human-friendly philosophy founded on science and
technology. It is designed to harmonize the natural and human
environments, and find resolutions to social issues, adopting a
methodology that implies something more than just "being friendly
to the Earth," which is the meaning usually associated with the
word "ecology."
For more information, please visit:
https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/attach/202409267062-O1-zZ1Tz5H4.pdf
Official website: https://www.hondafoundation.jp/en/
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SOURCE Honda Foundation